'The Hobbit' Cast Star in 'The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made'

Courtesy of Air New Zealand

The video really does live up to its own hyperbole

Attention, airlines of the world: Air New Zealand wants you to know that it’s time to step up the game on your airline safety videos, a message delivered via the subtly-named The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made. Spoilers: It lives up to that title.

Using both locations and actors from Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy — and including cameos from Jackson himself — the Most Epic video was directed by Taika Waititi over six days, and features effects, costumes and make-up from Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, both of which offered similar services to the movies themselves.

The video is, in itself, a sequel to the airline’s 2012 safety video, An Unexpected Briefing, which brought actors and characters from the Tolkien story onboard one of Air New Zealand’s 777-300ER planes. That video received more than 12 million views online, and the airline’s Head of Global Brand Development Jodi Williams said that she’s “confident our final Hobbit-inspired on-board safety video will delight fans as much as the first one and inspire even more people to consider a visit to Middle-earth.”

Calling The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made “yet another fantastic video to celebrate The Hobbit films,” Jackson said in a statement that he “had a lot of fun on the set with Taika and the team and look forward to seeing the video on board” in the near future.

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies — the last in a trilogy of movies that reportedly cost $745 million to make — will be released in theaters Dec. 17. Unless it features Sir Ian McKellan telling audiences how to assume the crash position, it may not live up to our suitably raised expectations.